The Law. Plus Bonus Trivia!

When you’re shopping for a couch, especially online, you may notice that certain sellers outside your state will sell you the couch without charging sales tax.

You may think to yourself that this is a pretty good deal (especially if the shipping is free).

But note that the law in your state probably says that you still owe tax, even though the seller doesn’t collect it. (It’s then called a “Use” tax, not a “Sales Tax,” but it’s a tax all the same.)

Many thanks to Wired magazine for pointing that out. And thanks, as always, to lexis-nexis for letting me look it up myself (and find that, in my state – Georgia – I owe 4% on any item I didn’t pay sales tax for).

Bonus Trivia

Joseph Heller originally was going to call his book “Catch 18.” In fact, he had called it that in certain printings. But that same year, Leon Uris came out with “Mila 18,” so Heller changed his to Catch 22.

For the trivia information, I thank and cite “The Yale Book of Quotations,” which I just got as a birthday present from my mom. Hi mom!